Farmers discuss milk pricing issues

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Farmers discuss milk pricing issues

Dairy farmers are sharing their ideas about milk pricing reform.  The American Dairy Coalition hosted an online meeting Tuesday, and farmers said changes in the last farm bill had unintended consequences including the large negative producer price differentials that led to reduced milk checks.

Bryan Henrichs milks 260 cows in Illinois and says there is no simple solution. He says, “Every region in this country, you know, every federal milk marketing order region is very different in what they’re, you know, making their priority for an FMMO hearing or a farm bill fix.”

Henrichs says the changes in the last farm bill had big impacts on risk management tools like Dairy Revenue Protection and Dairy Margin Coverage.  He described a neighbor who in 2020 locked in good prices but didn’t receive that price. “Obviously we know through most of that year, eighteen dollars would have been an extremely good number to have locked in. He ended up after the July contract with a negative PPD. He only ended up with $9.50 in his milk price.”

Henrichs says several cooperatives depooled milk dropping participation in the federal orders, which made things worse for farmers.  Henrichs says he does not want to see federal milk marketing orders go away but wants them to be fair and equitable for everyone in the industry.

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